FAS Web Design Course

sully13

Hi,
Has any done the FAS Web Design course (detail below) Is it any good?

Based in GALWAY CITY Course Code GYQ89
Course Description Evening Course
To provide participants with the necessary skills and knowledge that will enable them to construct web pages for web sites and enhance existing web sites.

Course Certification
City and Guilds iTQ Certificate of Unit Credit in Website Software Level 2

Modules:
INDUCTION - SHORT COURSE
ITQ - WEBSITE SOFTWARE - LEVEL 2
Requirements
Must have reached the statutory school leaving age
Interested in web page design and authoring.

Eogclouder

sully13 wrote: »

Hi,
Has any done the FAS Web Design course (detail below) Is it any good?

Based in GALWAY CITY Course Code GYQ89
Course Description Evening Course
To provide participants with the necessary skills and knowledge that will enable them to construct web pages for web sites and enhance existing web sites.

Course Certification
City and Guilds iTQ Certificate of Unit Credit in Website Software Level 2

Modules:
INDUCTION - SHORT COURSE
ITQ - WEBSITE SOFTWARE - LEVEL 2
Requirements
Must have reached the statutory school leaving age
Interested in web page design and authoring.

It'll mostly involve HTML and CSS I'd imagine, perhaps some JavaScript.

LukeQuietus

I'd find out all you can about what is involved in that Level 2 certification. The main problem with FAS is they have to show certificates at the end. Web Design and/or Development is notoriously an open source language fest. Javascript, HTML, CSS, PHP....none have certification programs. MySQL does, Java does, the Adobe programs do but I've never heard of anyone looking for a City & Guild certification in "website software". Don;t get me wrong, City & Guilds are good qualifications but FAS will sooner have you all doing stuff that isn't real world relevant for something that gives you a piece of paper at the end. Flawed system.

Also, if the ICE Group are doing it run far away... I've heard only bad things on numerous occasions. Right now they're advertising for an instructor vacancy like crazy.

Miss Mayhem

I did that course a few years ago and to be honest I didn't think it was very good. They just teach you the the VERY basics of what HTML and CSS is. You wouldn't know enough to go into business as a web designer after that course.

lacase

I am an IT professional with extensive experience in software development. I found myself unemployed for a few months and decided to do the Web design and Adobe Dreamweaver course in the Limerick Training Centre (formally FAS and latterly the Solus training center) in Raheen in Limerick. I have to say it is an outstanding course and I can not praise it highly enough. I am really glad that I did not take notice of the comments posted above. I found the teaching is top class and the content is state of the art. I leaned so much and I am so delighted I took this excellent opportunity that the course offered me to up skill. While I had a software engineering background the majority of my classmates didn't and they did equally as well. I would really recommend this course.

Irlandczyk

lacase wrote: »

I am an IT professional with extensive experience in software development. I found myself unemployed for a few months and decided to do the Web design and Adobe Dreamweaver course in the Limerick Training Centre (formally FAS and latterly the Solus training center) in Raheen in Limerick. I have to say it is an outstanding course and I can not praise it highly enough. I am really glad that I did not take notice of the comments posted above. I found the teaching is top class and the content is state of the art. I leaned so much and I am so delighted I took this excellent opportunity that the course offered me to up skill. While I had a software engineering background the majority of my classmates didn't and they did equally as well. I would really recommend this course.

You forgot to give your rating out of 5 stars. Sorry, your post might well be genuine, but it reads a whole lot like a paid review on the Google Play store...

Zogar 77

I am actually on the Web Design and Adobe Dream Weaver course as well and I am very happy with it. I have a background in graphic design and was always afraid of going near HTML and CSS, maths wasn't my best subject in school and I didn't want to go near hard coding. Because of the way the design industry is going you have to be able to design and code at the same time. Most of the jobs I look at demand this so I had to put my fear aside and try the course.

On beginning the course you are given the basics and begin to learn basic XHTML, vital for and web design course as there are web design courses out there that don't even go near hard coding, which is a huge mistake. Then we went onto CSS (difficult at first but the more you do it the easier it gets), Fireworks, some Photoshop, Bridge and a lot of Dreamweaver. We are using Adobe CC.

I have to say out tutor is excellent and will help you with anything. He is thorough and precise. We are given projects relating to what level we are on in the course and we can be as creative and inventive as we like. We are encouraged to try new things and our tutor will work with us to to get the results we want. He is up to date with what is going on in the industry and informs us as to how things are changing, be it with web development or Microsoft/Adobe software.

Because of this course I have the confidence to do a HDip course at LIT, Creative Multimedia Programming. I would find it difficult starting that course if it wasn't for this course.

And in relation to the sarcastic comment to my class mates comment above, I can assure you he is not working for FAS and neither am I. I have had some bad experiences with FAS before, as well as the social welfare and felt like spurting out negative comments here and there where it was deserved.

But believe me this course is worth doing.

lacase

I am very real and am just completing the course. I don't work for FAS, Solas, Limerick Training Center or anyone else that is why I am doing the course I am unemployed. Without hesitation I give this course a five star rating! The reason I posted here is that when I read the comments posted a while ago here I nearly did not do this course and that would have been such a shame. I am sorry if you had a bad experience, but that is not what I and the rest of my classmates found to be the situation now. I can only talk about this course as it is today in September 2014. I have no hesitation in highly recommending it to anyone that has an interest in web design.

The Snipe

Irlandczyk wrote: »

You forgot to give your rating out of 5 stars. Sorry, your post might well be genuine, but it reads a whole lot like a paid review on the Google Play store...

I'm in this course too, and he's right its a really good course down here, Pat Beasely was a very good tutor, funny and very down to earth. He was also very informative and when you needed help, he was able to explain it in very simple terms. He even covered responsive web layouts which aren't usually covered in the course (which is just a bit silly that it isn't to be honest).

I will admit sometimes there was a bit of a lul in terms of how fast it goes but that also gives people without the experience a chance to learn too.

Overall, very good course; you do learn how to make a decent static website but of course don't expect to come out setting up a business in it without having done a lot of homework yourself or having previously been in the industry, but that's why they teach it in college I suppose, it takes a bit more time then the few months you are there to acquire the full skill set. But, it is a very good introductory course to the field and gives a good insight, and it does give you the ability to make yourself, some mates or some small business a website, just don't expect to become DaVinci over night, just like everything else it takes time and practice.

Sorry if this is a bit mis construed, posting from mobile.

LukeQuietus

I just wanted to chip in again with some bullet points of what you will and won't get from the Dreamweaver course regardless of what county (and some general advice):

You will:

• learn how to use Dreamweaver to create a basic static website and (hopefully pass the test at the end)
• learn basic HTML and CSS
• learn very basic Fireworks (you will more than likely never use this again after the course) and Photoshop (you will certainly want to be using this after the course)

You won't:

• learn how to program (in either Javascript or PHP or whatever)...and you will NEED to learn this for real world web design of any kind. Sooner rather than later.
• be able to do freelance work from what you learn on this course. It's just not gonna happen. Nobody wants static websites anymore. At least for business purposes
• use Bridge to make galleries/slideshows like they show in the course.
• walk into a job as a web designer with just this course on your cv. You NEED javascript and/or PHP skills to do even basic real world web design. However, you could get an internship.

Things you should do yourself:

• if you ever want a job in web design use code view as much as possible to get used to html & css, don't rely on design view
• start looking into OTHER text editors and IDEs. In the real world most web designer and developers use Sublime Text, Netbeans or Eclipse for most of their work
• sign up to Lynda.com and also use Tuts+ to learn about whatever takes your fancy. Every web design and developer take a differrent path (Javascript, Mobile Apps, PHP, .NET etc) Embrace it! Nothing new learned is a waste of time in web design / development.
• I'd highly recommend doing the MySQL / PHP course from FAS after if you're serious about doing web design or development as a career. You don't need maths to be a programmer! I suck at maths and hate it but I'm a good PHP developer. I'm also more of a designer at heart but I love computers and solving problems. That's all it takes to make a good programmer. Patience and problem solving skills.
• if you want to go freelance I'd highly recommend doing a business course!
• LEARN WORDPRESS!!! It'll allow you to meet 99.9% of modern clients needs...including eCommerce websites.
• if you don't GENUINELY LOVE building websites and learning as much as possible to become a better designer / developer don't wast your time even thinking about looking for a career in it. It's not easy money! It's a hard life of long hours and low pay for the first few months - years. Especially freelance. And agencies won't keep you on if you show no self-motivation to keep up to date. Web design CHANGES RAPIDLY! Seriosly. What's being done today will be out of date in a month or two. That's not an exaggeration. If you're not spending at least one hour a day reading up or learning about it you simply won't make it.
• do free websites for real people (friend/family/whoever)! Do an internship! The demands real clients give for what they want a website to do will show you what you need to learn for real world situations. But don't expect a job from it...and that's ok...
• wear sunscreen

Who am I to give advice:
Less than three years ago I did the Dreamweaver CS5 course. Today I'm sitting in my own office after starting my own web design company four months ago: Affinity4. I spent at least 6 hours a day everyday for 18 months in front of my computer learning eveything I could about HTML5/CSS3, Javascript, jQuery and PHP. I love it! I enjoy learning about it (I'm learning new things everyday) and enjoy doing it even more.

If anyone is interested in learning more of the stuff I mentioned here just PM me. I give PHP lessons in Galway. And WordPress also. (unemployment and student rates available too). Or even if you just wanna chat about anything web related. Like I said...I enjoy it!

Hopefully some of this is helpful to someone.